Katika hali ya Kutisha iliyoikumba Nchi ya Iran... sasa Wameomba Po na kuomba Marekani iwaondolee Vikwazo katika idara ya Afya ili iweze kupambana na Gonjwa Jipya la Mafua linaloua kwa kasi raia wa Iran ambapo hadi kufikia leo mapema ni Raia 413 walishadanja huku raia zaidi ya elfu kumi wakiwa wanaugua wakiwepo viongozi wa Juu na Wabunge...Waziri wa mambo ya nje wa Iran Bwana Zarif alitweet huku akiomba Msaada wa Dawa na Vifaa walivyopungukiwa nchini Mwao as ni Msaada wa Haraka Sana so tusubiri Majibu ya Marekani watasemaje au Wataruhusu Channel ziwafikie Wairani wapate Msaada huo...Zile Tambo
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has written a letter to the United Nations secretary general, urging lifting of the unilateral and illegal sanctions imposed by the United States on the country, which have greatly hampered the Islamic Republicβs fight against the new coronavirus epidemic.
Iranβs Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, reported the letter in a tweet on Thursday, saying that copies of the letter addressed to Antonio Guterres were also sent to the heads of international organizations and Zarifβs counterparts across the world.
Despite the high scientific standing of the Iranian health apparatus and its commitment to the ongoing fight against the coronavirus outbreak, the complications created by the US sanctions βhave faced Iranβs fight with the COVID-19 outbreak with serious impediments,β Zarif said in his letter.
Novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, is a new respiratory disease first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. The World Health Organization on Wednesday described the outbreak as a pandemic.
More than 126,000 people have been infected by the virus across the world and 4,630 have died, the vast majority of them in China, according to a Reuters tally.
Iranβs Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state television on Thursday that 1,075 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been detected across the country in the last 24 hours, which brings the total number of infected people to 10,075. He also put the death toll at 429.
Elsewhere in his letter, Zarif said the USβ renewed sanctions had come in the way of legal trade with Iran amid the outbreak, adding that American officials have recently set some preconditions with the aim of preventing sales of medicine, medical equipment, and humanitarian commodities to the Islamic Republic.
The US reinstated its sanctions against Iran in May 2018 after leaving a UN-endorsed nuclear agreement with Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.
Tehran sued Washington at the International Court of Justice afterwards. The tribunal ruled that the US should lift its sanctions on humanitarian supplies.
The letter by the Iranian foreign minister then offered a breakdown of how else the USβ adversarial sanctions were targeting Iranβs economy.
Zarif pointed to US sanctions on Iranβs oil sales and the Iranian private sectorβs export activities, noting that the restrictions are reducing the Iranian governmentβs ability to provide Iranians with subsidies on staples, while also weakening the private sectorβs production and job creation capabilities.
Zarif described the sanctions preventing Iranβs purchase of medicine and medical equipment as βmulti-layeredβ bans targeting the financial, transportation, insurance, and banking sectors.
Through its draconian measures, the US is trying to bring Iranβs aviation activities to a halt by denying its aviation sector navigation equipment and software, Zarif said.
Most recently, American companies have also been stonewalling Iranβs access to the information technology tools that would help it confront the virus, he noted.
Zarif also released a list of medical equipment that Iran urgently needs in its fight against the coronavirus outbreak, saying that although βIranian care personnel are courageously battling #COVID19 on frontlines, their efforts are stymied by vast shortages caused by restrictions on our people's access to medicine/equipmentβ
The US success in bringing Iran under the pressure was to some extent rooted in the international communityβs inaction in the face of Washingtonβs illegal measures, the top diplomat remarked in the letter.
The letter finally demanded an immediate end to the US acts of economic terrorism against the Iranian people. It reminded the UN and its member states of their duty to accommodate the Iranian people and governmentβs request for cessation of the US policy towards Iran, and urged that the UN chief circulate the letter at the Security Council and the General Assembly.